Joe Lohmeier has taken over the reins as vice president for U.S. channel sales at the business communications and collaboration provider, effective immediately. He’ll be responsible for the strategy, business development and revenue for U.S.-based Avaya Connect channel partners.

Lohmeier has 19 years of sales leadership experience that spans direct, indirect sales and sales operations, most recently as VP of Americas Sales at VMware. He has also held prior sales leadership positions at Cisco and Parametric Technology Corp. At VMware, Lohmeier led the transformation of the company’s Inside Sales team, initiated a cross organizational sales feeder program, built greater partner collaboration the midmarket space and ultimately generated increased demand in the Americas.

Avaya’s channel business will represent almost 80 percent of the company’s worldwide revenue in 2014.